CSA #10 Merry Christmas!

December 24

Good morning

This will be a very short newsletter as unfortunately i cannot sit to write as i have hurt my back.  If you see Rick at the market this week give him an extra pat on the back for one heck of a week and for pulling through on his own.  I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

In your basket this week:

2 bags of carrots
1 bag of Hakurei Turnips
Garlic
1 bottle of Hot Sauce

Xtra Greens:

Kale and Tatsoi

Thank you so much and we'll catch up next week!

Shirley

CSA 9 Winter and Fall 2016

December 17th

Good morning!


Last night, when i opened my Take Out dinner, I suddenly realized that i was about to experience something i had wished upon for years.  Sitting in front of me was a salad made with our Chez Nous Salad Mix from a restaurant! You think it would have hit me when I ordered it, I mean we were making a drop off at The Kitchen in Ridgeway and she has been ordering salad mix lately but I guess fatigue was running the show at the time.  So after, a much longer time than necessary( thank you for your patience)...we came home with a very large bag of food.   Luckily, it's one of those places where, everything is good because we were in no state to make even the simplest decisions. When i saw my salad, covered in perfectly sliced thin beets and juicy bright pink grapefruit I was intrigued but then I notice that this was my salad mix, it was a moment and it was delicious! Grapefruit ...you are my new salad friend.

I can't believe there is  only 1 week till Christmas... the farm has really swallowed us up this season and it looks like yet again, there are some big goals to accomplish this week.  The weather is expected to get milder and so the rest of the carrots need to get out.  Rick is also hoping to get the second layer of plastic on the greenhouse.  Next weeks baskets will be on the simple side as somehow, someway Christmas needs to happen here too!   Therefore, expect extra root crops and less fresh greens.

In your baskets this week:

Carrots
Hakurei Turnips
Chipotles (ideas and recipe below)
Salad Mix
Tatsoi

x-tra Greens: Kale and salad

Rick working on Hakurei Turnips while I harvest Tatsoi.

Harvesting is a little more involved at first, as you want to take time to clean the plants from any bad leaves. 

Rick hooked up some fans in greenhouse this week.  How convenient that my brother and sister-in law where changing all the fans in their house!

Harvesting outside...not so comfortable.  However, a little less muddy with the snow.

Something we have noticed about harvesting leeks after a hard frost is a yellow tinge they get and extra sweetness too!

Finally, we've given out some Chipotles this week.  These are Red Jalapeños that have been smoked and dried. They were smoked with some clean Applewood.  They have a lovely sweet raisin smell.

I use them all sorts of ways. The simplest is to grind them in a spice grinder seeds and all and then use to season dishes.  

Another way, is to re-hydrate by soaking in hot water and then you can even remove seeds if you don't like so much spice. I often put them into what ever i'm cooking( soup) when i see they are soft enough i will remove the Chipotles and take them apart in sink...washing out the seeds. Then i Vitamix (blend) with juice from my recipe. 

They can be used to make sauces such as Chipotle Aioli from dried or moist ( moist allows you so remove seeds and gives a fresher taste)

Please use gloves! 

 

 

Here I was building some meatballs....i used the chipotles in sauce.

Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

coconut or olive oil

Nice chunk of ginger

2 large sweet potatoes

2 leeks

1 clove of garlic

1-3 Chipotles ( i used 3 seeds removed and it was hot)

1 can coconut milk

1/2 to 3/4 box of pre-made vegetable broth

2 tsp of tomato paste

 pinch nutmeg

pinch cumin seed

Start with leeks in oil (coconut or olive).

When soft add ginger and garlic.

Add sweet potatoes, whole chipotles vegetable broth.

When all is cooked, remove chipotles and seed then put in blender with soup. ( you can leave some out if you like chunkier) Blend till smooth. Season with Nutmeg and toasted cumin seed.

* Toast cumin seed in dry pan till aromatic.

 Thanks! Have a great week!

Shirley

CSA #8 Winter and Fall

December 10th

Good morning

I hope your all enjoying your Fall and Winter baskets knowing that these items you are receiving are really being harvested here, at this time of year.  It's something that always seems more impressionable when everything is coated in snow...which I hear could be soon. We gathered up the rest of the outside greens this week and depending on the weather the plants may stay alive and give us some bonus greens at some point.   We are still working at getting out all the carrots and leeks, there sure is a lot out there!

I am happy to say that our two men got the first layer of plastic on the new greenhouse this week! Quite a tricky job for two people but it's done and both end walls are closed up also.  There is still lots to be done though...like the second layer, some more weather proofing and some fans to blow the heat down.  Starting next week, all greens harvested will be coming from the greenhouse.

In your baskets this week:

Carrots
Leeks
Red Onions
Purple and Green Napa Leaves ( very mild)
Kale Hearts (from the topped outside plants)

Xtra Greens: Salad Mix and Half a Savoy Cabbage

Pink Napa like green Napa very mild and perfect anywhere you like greens.

Getting some house wrap on the North wall, still not sure what the finishing layer will be.

Add caption

Lots of cleaning and weeding to be done.  The fact that we built this greenhouse on an existing garden, fully planted, without wrecking anything is pretty neat.

 Have a great week!
Shirley

CSA #7 Fall and Winter

December 3

Greetings everyone!

It felt great to get some baskets back out to you after last weekends cancellation.  It also was nice to see crops that we thought were damaged come back.  Overall, the loss was not near as bad as we thought and everyday of nicer weather plants seemed to stand a little taller!

In your baskets this week:

Chez Nous Salad Mix
Kale
Carrots
Leeks
Celeriac

X-tra Greens: Spinach and Arugula

Here's a recipe for Leek and Celeriac Gratin:https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/celeriac-leek-and-thyme-bake.html

Carrots harvested at this time are unbelievably tasty!

Crops that have the pinks and purples in them always seem to be glowing in the field ...pictures never do them justice.  

The Swiss Chard took it the hardest. We'll remove the damaged leaves and the new growth will be ok.

We spent some time hauling in containers of crops such as this purple napa which i use in the salad mix.

So here we are, waiting for a no wind to unroll our top layer of plastic.  The sides are up, as is the back wall  helping to protect the crops a little.  Once the inner layer goes on, we'll do it all over again with the outer layer. 

 Have a great week!

CSA #6 Fall and Winter

November 19 2016

Such a beautiful day yesterday... and you better believe we were out there from sunrise to sunset.  While daylight isn't really that long this time of year, we're feeling it but we're nearly there and I can't wait!  Above all, I can't wait to visit my daughter who recently moved to Toronto for school. Until now she had been commuting nearly 6 hours a day and so, we were really happy for her! Unfortunately, the timing was really bad for us and she's had to do so much on her own for which we are extremely proud but i just can't wait to get up there and spend the day eat some food and see what we could help her with!

In your baskets this week:

Chez salad Mix
Broccoli Shoots
Red Onion
Kale
Carrots
Mint (for tea, just let dry in bag)

Extra Greens: Salad Mix and Asian Greens Mix (looks like salad but not chopped, no lettuce and no Napa)

 Some beautiful red onions in the baskets today.

Brocoli Shoots 

A strutting carrot! 

Finishing the last of the structural pieces, for which i do not know the names, but here he is adding in the highest  piece along the peak.  

The sun is setting, the rain is coming, this needs to get finished because once it rains the scaffold will sink too deep in the mud.

I'm harvesting Kale for the market while Rick gets those last pieces.

Textures...

This girl is done.  Rick still needs to get the scaffold out.  Time for dinner...market mornings come real fast!

See you tomorrow Duck Duck!

Shirley

CSA #5

November 12

I appreciate my husbands interest in and understanding of, the world around him.  His mother would often laugh and tell me about how when Rick was a kid, he would take e-v-e-r-y-thing apart ...to see how it worked.   Not sure what my response would have been if my child would have torn open all the toys i bought him but thankfully his mom was good with it because it's been a blessing in his life. Last week, we bought my nephew a toy and later on in the evening my husband says I figured it out, I know how it works!   And then, he needed to explain it to me, as he always does and I try to understand but I usually don't.  Sometimes I'll ask him about something, some piece of machinery, just for the heck of it and he always seems to know what it's for.  His understanding of things has transferred onto our natural environment and now he spends time figuring out the soil and the weather etc...  He sure is handy to have around!

On the other hand, I walk around oblivious to how anything works but it doesn't mean I'm not watching or thinking, actually i'm often very distracted by what I see.  My eyes see photos and my mind tells stories and I just love the beauty of it all. My husband often makes the comment that i have seen a butterfly again! And when you're working with so many beautiful vegetables it can be a challenge.  Sometimes, I just have to stop and run for my phone or camera because I just can't let that one get away, not that i am a professional photographer in any way but i do really enjoy it.  This weeks celery was insanely gorgeous and I was happy to get a few shots of it.

Two very different people, working side by side, making it happen.  It's so important to love and appreciate our differences.

In your baskets this week:

Chez Nous Salad Mix
Kale
Sweet Peppers
Red Celery
Arugula

Extra Greens: Salad Mix and Swiss Chard

Who decided that we should focus on breeding only green celery? This stuff is gorgeous.

I love this picture because...Rick is explaining to me how this greenhouse works...I am taking a picture and the look on his face probably wondering why i am taking a picture when he is explaining something to me makes me laugh! Plus, look at all the awesome greens growing in the greenhouse.

The celery will be a challenge to fit in your fridge! It's huge!

Homegrown celery is different than what you may be used to...it definitely has a stronger celery flavour and there are some stringier pieces.  

Super happy to have received a small grant to help build our market greenhouse. Thank you Carrot Cache!!!

Have a great week!
Shirley

CSA #4 Fall and Winter

November 5

Bless this weather.  It's been a really comfortable working environment and great for the gardens also, with nothing but minimal light frost.   We presently have some help on the farm and what a difference it makes, things have moved along nicely this week.

This week, the rest of the garlic was planted, all greenhouse peppers were removed for the last of the greenhouse spinach, lots of greenhouse work was completed, our small winter lettuce house was planted and a good amount of winter clean up was done.

In your baskets this week:

Chez Nous Salad Mix
Mustard Greens
Jalapeno Peppers
Garlic Slivers ( big cloves get planted and small cloves are great for cooking)
Kohlrabi
Carrots

Extra Greens: Chez Nous Mix and Kale


We also dug into the carrots this week.  We are still waiting for a few more sweetening treatments from frost but a little thinning didn't hurt. What beautiful carrots!



So more hot peppers in the baskets.  It's a blend of Green Jalapeño and Green Serrano.  They are of varied size as they were the final harvest of the outdoor Hot Pepper House.  Many recipes only call for small amounts of Jalapeños and depending on your heat level you may want to freeze a bit.You can freeze them whole and then chop them partly frozen when your ready or just chop them all now and freeze on a flat surface then pop into a freezer bag.
However, they do keep for quite a while in the fridge and they do taste so nice and fresh chopped and added to dish raw.

Here are a few, not so common recipes, on my list to try. I am especially excited about the deep dish pizza as it also gives recipes for some vegan cheese, sounds like quite a long recipe but it can easily be adapted to use dairy! And the corn Dip with a side of salsa sounds relish!

corn and Jalapeno Dip

Garlic Jalapeno Pasta

Deep Dish Jalapeño Pie

Basil Jalapeno Corn fritters

And last here's a very non vegan recipe! Jalapeño Cheeseburger Pasta

Strange creatures...Kohlrabi

2 Beds so far and one more to build.  This is our seedling sale house during spring, Our scorching hot pepper house in summer and our lettuce beds in winter.  It also houses any potted plants to overwinter (pepper plants in background). To date only our Piri Piri peppers have survived the winters but we are trying again this year.

I have loads of Piri peppers drying from our pepper "trees" that grew from our overwintered peppers. 

The cool weather is bringing out all the lovely colours in Kale.

Some crazy big spinach in the greenhouse and chopped up in your salad mix.

Making progress.

Have a great week

Shirley and Rick 

Chez Nous Farms